Democracy: Egypt's beautiful dream in the wrong hands

From Aalam Wassef, Special to CNN‎

Updated 0818 GMT (1618 HKT) January 22, 2014

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Photos: Egypt protests – Protesters and Egyptian riot police clash in Cairo on January 17, as the country awaits the results of a constitutional referendum. On January 18, the electoral commission announced the constitution had overwhelmingly been approved.

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Photos: Egypt protests – An Egyptian youth holds up his national flag outside a polling station in Cairo on January 14, day one of a two-day vote on a new constitution.

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Photos: Egypt protests – On December 25, 2013, The Egyptian interim government declared the Mohammed Morsy-led Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. The action was taken in response to a police station bombing in Mansoura, which the government has stated was the responsibility of the Brotherhood, despite denials from the group itself.

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Photos: Egypt protests – Cairo University's students backing ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsy flash the four-finger sign during a demonstration against July's military "coup " in Tahrir square on December 1, 2013. The four-finger sign has become associated with a government crackdown on pro-Morsy supporters in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square on August 14.

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Photos: Egypt protests – Egyptian women members of the Muslim Brotherhood hold roses as they stand in the defendants' cage dressed in prison issue white during their trial in at the court in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria on December 7, 2013.

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Photos: Egypt protests – Egyptian protesters use flare lights at Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo on November 26, 2013 during a clash with police after the security forces dispersed protesters from a demonstration organized by human rights group "No Military Trials for Civilians" in the first unauthorized protest staged in the capital since the adoption of a law that regulates demonstrations.

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Egypt protests – A soldier sets up barbed wire in anticipation of protesters outside the constitutional court in Cairo on Sunday, August 18, 2013. During the previous week about 900 people -- security forces as well as citizens -- had been killed. Deaths occurred when the military used force to clear supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy from two sit-in sites in Cairo, and violence raged after Morsy supporters staged demonstrations.

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Egypt protests – Friends and relatives of Ammar Badie, 38, killed during clashes in Ramses Square, carry his coffin during his funeral in Al-Hamed mosque in Cairo on August 18, 2013. Ammar Badie was the son of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie.

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Egypt protests – Wreckage and debris litter the area around the Al-Fateh mosque in Cairo, where hundreds of Islamist protesters had barricaded themselves on Saturday, August 17, 2013. Thousands defied an emergency order by taking to the streets the day before to mark a "Friday of anger" in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsy.

Photos: Egypt protests – Mohamed Morsy masks are displayed for sale at the base for supporters of the ousted president on July 12, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. The country has been in a state of political paralysis following the ousting of former president and Muslim Brotherhood leader Morsy by the military.

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Photos: Egypt protests – Two veiled Egyptian women, supporters of Mohamed Morsy, sit in front of police standing behind barbed wire fencing that blocks the access to the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo on July 8, 2013.

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Egypt protests – A woman tries to stop a military bulldozer from hurting a wounded youth during clashes on August 14, 2013, in eastern Cairo.

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Egypt protests – Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy run as Egyptian security forces fire toward them on August 14, 2013.

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Egypt protests – The national identity cards of protesters allegedly killed during a clear-out operation by Egyptian security forces on pro-Morsy demonstrators are exchanged at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Medical Center on August 14, 2013.

Story highlights

Egypt has been in turmoil since the ousting of Mohamed Morsy, following Hosni Mubarak's fall

Aalam Wassef argues democracy in the country remains a dream, in the wrong hands

The activist says the bonds between people broke, revealing an industry of hate and division

But he says it is up to the individual, and every decision they make, to create democracy

Egypt's Mohamed Morsy, the nation's first democratically elected president, was forced out of office in 2013 by the nation's military and arrested following widespread protests and petitions calling for his removal. Opponents said he was a tyrant trying to impose conservative values. Supporters called his removal a coup and a blow to the democratic movement that toppled former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011. As violent demonstrations continue to rock the country, CNN asked Egyptian artist Aalam Wassef how he saw the evolution of the democracy in Egypt.

Q:You have said democracy is not something you get, but that you aim at. Should democracy always be the goal and why can it not be achieved?

A: In December 2013, at a time when Egypt was debating a constitution meant to fulfill the dreams of its revolution, one realized that having a good constitution isn't an end in itself.

Aalam Wassef

What would truly fulfill our dreams would be to guarantee that, indeed, each and every article of a valid constitution would be implemented and respected to the letter.

Without such guarantees and commitment of all instances involved in such a process, any constitution would be no more than ink on paper.

The same applies for democracy.

There is nothing wrong with democracy. We, humans, make it right or wrong and often concede to impoverished forms of democracy.

In Egypt, we let it be surrounded by corruption and serve the interests of those in power, and those of other nations that would gladly describe themselves as great democracies -- at home.

This was and is the faith of Egypt's democracy: A beautiful dream in the hands of the very wrong "implementers" -- the army, the police, a disempowered political class, international allies that are either autocracies or democracies with double standards.

Q:When do you believe Egypt got closest to democracy and why was it unable to be sustained?

A: Egypt is close to democracy each time any of its citizens says no to anything the Bill of Human Rights would describe as an injustice.

This is democracy in action.

Although you don't have it yet, you are implementing it in your own life. You might go to jail, be tortured and be sexually harassed. Indeed, many have -- including prominent secular Egyptian activists and freedom fighters.

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Q:How do you see the role of the individual in a democracy and why?

A: An individual could potentially be more powerful than a fully fledged army, if -- and only if -- this individual would take the time to consider that all that happens in his or her direct environment is his or her direct responsibility, duty and right.

For some reason, the conceptual connection binding us to "our right and responsibility to act upon our fate" is broken or maybe simply sedated.

No longer sedated, we became awake, happy and powerful simply because we were strongly re-connected to each other and to our direct environment, to our needs and to our responsibilities towards each other.

What was emotionally devastating was that solidarity naturally emerged as a social project and modus operandi on all levels. We experienced an expanded version of what taxes, social contracts or solidarity meant on paper.

We were human beings in an environment that had to be taken care of, that had to be shared with others, and all of us -- in solidarity -- agreed to take care of it and of each other.

Whatever had broken this bond struck us like a slap in the face. We saw, in all its might, an industry of hate and division at work.

There was the brainwashing of children, taught that critical thinking is unpatriotic, corrupt politicians and as many structures of power, including entertainment networks, that needed to divide us, to maintain us in fear and in a state of dependence.

The sustainability of such structures could only be guaranteed by this very fear, dependence and political disempowerment.

The invisible hand, not only the one of the market, became quite visible and unforgettable. We're seeing it at work, again, right now.

Q:What is needed in Egypt now and how could groups like Third Square have effected change?

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A: It's interesting to see the name Third Square written here, many months after its inception and evaporation. The Third Square was like an epidermic reaction, followed by many other reactions like The Masmou Campaign ("Be Heard") and others.

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They were crystallizations of thoughts embodied by a few hundreds who gathered three or four times in a physical space, whose echo in social media reached tens of thousands, whose message morphed into another campaign by other people or was incorporated in a politician's speech, etc.

I feel one needs to surrender to something the Egyptian youth is not deconstructing or putting into words or statements.

The engagement of youth in politics could have led to the creation of political parties and traditional political formations. But they are obviously extremely reluctant to do so.

Maybe we simply do not believe in such models. I think this stubborn reluctance "to conform" is a self defense mechanism.

Indeed, in an environment that is profoundly corrupt and ill-intended, where those who claim to defend you are those who arrest you, the natural collective self-protecting reaction is to never concentrate all your power into one group (i.e a party) but to stay agile, in motion, nowhere and everywhere.